R.I. Board of Elections owed more than $1.4 million in campaign fines

Saturday

Sep 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PROVIDENCE — With more than $1.4 million in outstanding fines, the state Board of Elections staff is trying again to deal with the growing problem of politicians, candidates and political organizations...

By Philip Marcelo

PROVIDENCE — With more than $1.4 million in outstanding fines, the state Board of Elections staff is trying again to deal with the growing problem of politicians, candidates and political organizations failing to file campaign finance reports on time.

Board of Elections Chairman Frank Rego said last week that he wants to find a way to get the most egregious campaign finance scofflaws to comply with state law.

But he also wants to make sure the proposal, which is still being developed by the board’s staff, does not infringe on Rhode Islanders’ constitutional rights.

“I’m all for collecting fines, but my biggest concern when we go down this route is, constitutionally, would it hold up in court?” Rego said. “You don’t want to do something that you know is wrong to start off with. I’m not here to stop someone from voting or running for office.”

The amount owed in fines has grown from $1.2 million to $1.4 million over the last year, but the list of candidates and former candidates with the highest amount of accrued fines has remained fairly stable over the past year.

The top spot is currently held by former Sen. Patrick T. McDonald, a Narragansett Democrat accused of embezzling more than $160,000 from various real-estate matters he was handling as a lawyer. He owes $161,819 in campaign-finance fines dating to 2002.

Coming in second is former Sen. John A. Celona, a North Providence Democrat who served three years in federal prison starting in 2007 for selling his office for political favors. He owes $129,010 for not filing campaign-finance reports since January 2004.

Earlier this year, the elections board proposed legislation barring anyone who failed to file four or more reports — or owed the elections board $2,000 or more in fines — from running for office or accepting further donations.

The board later acknowledged the prohibition was likely unconstitutional and requested that the language be stricken from the bill, which did not clear the General Assembly.

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